Google Announces One Pass System for Digital Content - NYTimes.com

More Apple/Google co-opetition

“This is purely a shot across Apple’s bow at a critical point in time,” said James L. McQuivey, a digital media analyst at Forrester Research. “That’s what the industry wants right now, to know there is an alternative to Apple and someone willing to talk about a more reasonable rate.”

Under Apple’s plan, the company will keep 30 percent of any sale of digital content, like books, music and magazines, within its App Store and will own the subscriber information, like names and e-mail addresses. Users can choose to share that information with publishers if they want.

When publishers use One Pass, which for now is limited to online newspapers and magazines, Google will keep 10 percent of the sale price and share the customer’s name, ZIP code and e-mail address unless the customer specifically asks Google not to.

Google Announces One Pass System for Digital Content - NYTimes.com